


Run Away With Me

by lesbianoodle



Series: NepreziWeek 2K16 [1]
Category: Homestuck
Genre: Alternate Universe - Royalty, Bloodstuck, F/F, Fluff, nepreziweek, this is terrible and tomorrows is better
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-01
Updated: 2016-08-01
Packaged: 2018-07-28 16:49:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,249
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7648819
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lesbianoodle/pseuds/lesbianoodle
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"Run away then." Nepeta said, with the naïvety of a troll only a few sweeps old. </p>
<p>"I can't. I have to rule the planet." Terezi rested her head on her knees.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Run Away With Me

People often spoke badly of the heiress. They said she was brash, she was too focused on justice, she lacked compassion. Whenever she heard this at the market, Nepeta bit down hard on her lip, sometimes until it bled. She had to stop the words from escaping her mouth. Because she knew that she could tell them different. 

She could tell them that the heiress was wonderful, fun, caring; but that would give away how close they were very quickly. And a servant girl falling in love with the heiress was the kind of gossip that could spread around the entire planet in seconds. Even if it wasn't gossip and it was true. Even if the servant girl's love was entirely unrequited. 

When she returned home from the market, she'd say nothing to Terezi. But the blind girl could see through her better than anybody she'd ever met. Terezi would sigh and run both hands through her tangled curls, pacing the length of the food block and again and again. The other servants would look nervous. When the heiress was frustrated, anybody could be in trouble. 

"I try so hard to be good at this." Terezi always says. 

"I know, Miss Pyrope." Nepeta always replies. 

"It's not my fault that I suck at being an heiress." Terezi reasons. 

"You were maybe born into the wrong caste." Nepeta suggests. 

"Yeah." Terezi stops pacing and crosses her arms, "That would make a whole lot of sense, wouldn't it? I don't talk proper, my eyesight is failing, I can't be all proper and princess-y. I think I'd be so much better in a low caste like your own." 

Nepeta blushes a deep shade of rusty red. Coming from somebody else, she would have maybe been insulted to have been called a low caste. She knew she was but that didn't mean the highbloods had to constantly remind her how lucky she was to work in such a high position. When Terezi said it... She didn't know any better. Plus, it sounded like Terezi identified with Nepeta. And that would be enough to make any lowly servant girl blush.

And Nepeta was a lowly servant girl. She was the lowest on the blood caste. It was a mystery to most people how she even managed to get a job in the palace- and how she managed to get the job of Terezi's handmaiden of all things. She was in a position that most _olive bloods_ couldn't even dream of. But Terezi had picked her. 

She could remember the day she started working like it was yesterday. 

It was like being a hoofbeast up for sale, standing next to the others and shivering in her thin clothes. Her shirt was tight around her arms, her skirt was rough and woollen, barely reaching her ankles. Nepeta looked jealously at the rich girls passing by with their long skirts and their carefree attitudes. She'd been up for sale ever since her lusus had been killed and the slaveowner had picked her up off the streets. So far, nothing. She was beginning to lose hope that anybody would ever want her. 

There was a blast of music and crackling words from a speaker. Nepeta pressed her hands over her ears, hating how loud it was, and closed her eyes tightly. The highblood managing her smacked her hands hard, so that they fell back to her sides and she let out a sob. Most people ignored her. Who cares about a slave getting boxed around the ears once or twice? She's certainly been treated worse in the past and nobody's cared. 

"Did they hurt you?" Somebody speaks in a rasp of a voice. Confident, loud, uncaring. This is somebody who doesn't care who overhears them.

Nepeta shakes her head just slightly, her curls falling around her face as she stares at the ground. She doesn't want to get into anymore trouble with the strict highblood.

"You're crying." It sounds like a girl. She sounds hurt, like she was the one that got smacked. A foreign hand brushes against Nepeta's face, wiping away her falling tears. Her face is still wet, a lump still aching in her throat that she can't swallow. She studies the pink sneakers in front of her, trying to work out exactly who the girl addressing her is. 

"'M fine, Miss." Nepeta shuffles her feet.

"Don't be dumb." The girl says but it doesn't sound mean. 

And that's when Nepeta looks up. "I'm not dumb, I can talk just fine." 

Standing there in front of her is a girl who doesn't look much older than her. A highblood, so she's probably younger actually. Everybody knows that highbloods live much longer- maybe it's because lowbloods are worked to death- and get to behave like wrigglers much longer. The girl is tall, though, with a mess of curls falling over her shoulders. She's wearing short clothes that cut off in odd places- doesn't she know that long skirts are the trend this year?- and a bright pair of glasses that balance on her nose. There's a thin band of gold around her head. 

A crown, Nepeta recognises it from her storybooks, this must be some kind of princess. Immediately, she dips into the deepest bow she can, her hairs scraping the dirt of the ground, which is how she's told that she must address ladies. She straightens back up and clears her throat, unsurely. She spots the guards behind the girl. She's in trouble, she knows it. 

"I want this one." The princess announces, her pointing finger almost taking Nepeta's eye out. 

"That one's expensive." The highblood in charge decides instantly, even though Nepeta has been going for the cheapest price for weeks. 

"I'm not buying her." The princess- heiress, maybe? Is she the one they talk about?- insists, "I'm hiring her. I'll pay her for her work, not you. It's only fair." 

And she took Nepeta by the hand and lead her away. As she's pulled away, Nepeta looks back at the life she's leaving behind and can't help but feel sad for the friends she's leaving behind. Kanaya, Feferi. Both of them are watching her. She offers a small wave. Kanaya smiles kindly at her, understanding. Feferi nods. And Nepeta never sees them again. 

She's been working for Terezi for years, earning more than enough that she could have left by now. But she doesn't want to. Terezi, despite some of her odd requests, is a wonderful person to work for. She shares secret smiles with Nepeta all the time, holds her hand under the dinner table when she can, and treats her like a real person. It makes something in Nepeta's chest flutter. She recognises the feeling from the storybooks she reads to Terezi. 

"I met the worst of the highbloods today. Tripping over themselves to please me." Terezi says, one day, as Nepeta is brushing her hair. It's always knotting. It would be easier to handle if they just cut it short but that's the hairstyle of commoners or something stupid like that. 

Nepeta purses her lips and doesn't remind her that she watched the whole thing. "Oh?"

"One of them was flushing red for me so ridiculously that I didn't know what to do." Terezi laughs like it's nothing, "I blew her off in the end. Told her I didn't do red." 

"Mhm." Nepeta's stomach leaps, "Are you ever going to go red with somebody?"

"Haven't met anybody good enough yet." Terezi shrugs, turning to grin at her. She's pushed her glasses up on top of her head, so that she can only see her eyes. Day by day, her pupils seem to lose focus as her sight is swallowed. She can still see... But not for long.

"You're the heiress, nobody is good enough." Nepeta laughs. 

"It's nothing to do with status." Terezi rolls her eyes. Or she tries to. Her eyes don't move. 

_She'd never flush for you_ , a voice at the back of Nepeta's head says. 

She excuses herself quickly from the room after that and goes for a walk in the garden. It's the only place in the palace that looks almost like where her lusus raised her- part of the palace that's on land instead of under the suffocating water. When she'd first come to work here, Terezi wanted to know everything about what it was like elsewhere. She hated it here, she said, where there was nothing but beaches and water. Nepeta had told her all about her home.

"There's grass everywhere and beasts walking around." Nepeta struggled for words, only knowing the words her storybooks had taught her, "We lived inside. But in the days, we ran around outside. It was warm from the sun." 

She couldn't describe the way that the grass had brushed her ankles and how the sun had shone and the rain had poured and how her home had been crumbling, damp but perfect. Her lusus who was often weird and distant but came hunting with her. There were no words. 

"I wish I could see it." Terezi said, rubbing her eyes. Her eyesight had started to disappear. Everybody seems to blame Terezi for it happening- everybody knows that blindness is a weakness and the weak get culled on Alternia. Everybody knows it's only a matter of time before somebody attempts to cull her. People talk. 

"You have all this to look at." Nepeta waved her arms around. The sea lapped at the sand gently, the stars glittering above them.

Terezi shrugged. "I've seen it all before. I want to see something new."

"Run away then." Nepeta said, with the naïvety of a troll only a few sweeps old. 

"I can't. I have to rule the planet." Terezi rested her head on her knees. 

For the first time, Nepeta became aware of the fact that it didn't matter how much money you had. Everybody on Alternia was fighting for survival. And if you couldn't play your role, you were out. You were culled. Not even the heiress was free from this stupid empire. 

"Nepeta!!" Terezi is chasing her down the garden. 

"What?" Nepeta spins around, surprised to see her quick on her heels. She thought that the heiress didn't need her anymore- was there some task she'd forgotten to do? Immediately, she starts apologising but Terezi shushes her. 

"I just wanted to hang out with you. Like we did as kids." Terezi explains, catching up quickly. She walks at Nepeta's side as they do a turn of the garden, picking the leaves off the plants. The gardener will be at them later for it. Nepeta picks the head of a pink flower from its stem and begins to pick the petals one by one. She remembers that silly game they used to play with the flowers in this garden. _She's flushed for me, she's pitch for me..._

"We had fun, huh?" Terezi elbows her, "Like best friends." 

"I'm pretty sure I didn't do any required duties." Nepeta smiles at her, "I sucked at my job." 

"You rocked it." Terezi assures her, "There's no servant I like more."

Right. _I'm still her servant,_ Nepeta thinks, _it doesn't matter how close we are_. 

"Hey." Terezi stumbles over a stone slab and grabs Nepeta's hand to hold herself up, "Remember when we used to talk all the time about running away?" 

"Yeah." Nepeta squeezes her hand, "We were dumb kids." 

"We could still do it." Terezi says, "Nobody would care. Everybody on this planet knows that I'm the crappiest heiress they've ever had. I'll never be able to rule the planet." 

"Don't say that." Nepeta says, quietly.

Terezi shrugs. "It's true. I wish we could just switch places."

Nepeta shakes her head. _Not if you knew the stupid thoughts that ran through my head_. 

"You're so lucky, Nepeta." Terezi says, "You're free." 

"'M a servant." Nepeta says, blankly. 

Terezi just laughs and leans in. 

Before Nepeta can react, the taste of fuchsia is on her lips and Terezi's face is pressed up close against hers. Her nose is digging into Nepeta's cheek, her tongue fumbling around like she has no idea what she's really doing. Neither of them know what they're doing. Nepeta stands up on tiptoes, trying her best to kiss like they do in storybooks. But she has no idea how to do it. Her hands grab awkwardly at Terezi's shirt, trying to steady herself. 

She ends up knocking them both over onto the grass, losing her balance and tackling Terezi. She lands on top of the heiress, chest to chest, nose to nose. Nepeta gasps, horrified, and tries to scramble to her feet. Terezi grabs her hand back and doesn't let go. 

"Let's run away." She says. 

"We can't." Nepeta barely whispers, worried she's going to be caught lying on top of the heiress by one of the other servants; as if the other servants didn't dislike her enough already, "You know we can't. They'd cull us both."

"Let's pretend, then." Terezi squeezes her hand, "Pretend with me. Like we used to." 

People often spoke badly of the heiress. They said she was brash, she was too focused on justice, she lacked compassion. Whenever she heard this at the market, Nepeta bit down hard on her lip, sometimes until it bled. She had to stop the words from escaping her mouth. Because she knew that she could tell them different. 

She could tell them a thing or two about her matesprit.


End file.
